Nanohelical Permeable Electronics with Strain-Insensitive Performance

Stretchable electronics that are permeable to air and moisture are essential for emerging on-skin healthcare applications and human–machine symbiosis, yet a materials-agnostic strategy capable of delivering permeability together with performance-invariant stretchability across diverse electronic materials remains elusive. Here we report a universal and scalable approach for fabricating nanohelical electronic materials by transforming pre-stretched electrospun nanofibres into three-dimensional helical architectures via mismatch-strain-driven buckling. This geometry-enabled strategy accommodates a broad range of functional materials, including metals and organic/inorganic semiconductors, yielding large-area, lightweight and highly permeable nanohelical networks with low effective stiffness and pronounced strain insensitivity. Enabled by their spring-like deformation and intrinsic twist–bend coupling, the nanohelices redistribute strain uniformly and maintain stable electrical performance with negligible drift under large mechanical deformation, even at strains exceeding 50%. Finite-element analysis, together with a semi-analytical scaling model tailored to the half-coated nanofibre geometry, elucidates the underlying mechanics and relates the nanohelix morphology to fibre diameter, coating thickness and modulus contrast. We further demonstrate the versatility of this platform across multiple device modalities, including dry epidermal electrodes, stretchable electroluminescent displays, deformable interconnects, and strain-insensitive pressure, temperature and photodetectors, highlighting its potential for conformal and durable soft-electronic systems. Skin conformal electronics with materials capable of permeability and performance invariant stretchability are sought after. Here, the authors present large-area, lightweight and permeable nanohelical networks by transforming pre-stretched electrospun nanofibres into 3D helical architectures.